Adding operations on Model without adding code to Model - c++

Question

Say i have an hierarchy of Shape objects, each has its own data (polyline has list of vertices, circle has a center and radius, etc).
I want to be able to perform operations on each shape, such as Draw, Snap to some point, split to two shapes at a specific point, etc.
One way to do it is to add a method to Shape interface for each operation. However, in that case i will have to modify my model interface every time a new operation is added. It does not sound correct to me. I thought of the following solution and would like to here your opinion or other solutions.
I will add an interface of ShapeOperationsFactory and the following method to Shape interface:
class Shape
{
public:
virtual ShapeOperationFactory* createShapeOperationsFactory() = 0;
};
class Circle : public Shape
{
public:
virtual ShapeOperationsFactory* createShapeOperationsFactor();
};
ShapeOperationsFactory* Circle::createShapeOperationsFactory()
{
return new CircleShapeOperationsFactory();
}
ShapeOperationsFactory will be able to create a set of operations classes that are specific for the shape:
class ShapeOperationsFactory
{
public:
virtual ShapeDrawer* createDrawer() = 0;
virtual ShapeSnapper* createSnapper() = 0;
virtual ShapeSplitter* createSplitter() = 0;
};
class CircleShapeOperationsFactory : public ShapeOperationsFactory
{
public:
virtual ShapeDrawer* createDrawer();
virtual ShapeSnapper* createSnapper();
virtual ShapeSplitter* createSplitter();
}
ShapeDrawer* CircleShapeOperationsFactory::createDrawer()
{
return new CircleShapeDrawer();
}
ShapeSnapper* CircleShapeOperationsFactory::createSnapper()
{
return new CircleShapeSnapper();
}
ShapeSplitter* CircleShapeOperationsFactory::createSplitter()
{
return new CircleShapeSplitter();
}
In this implementation the Shape interface will not change when new operations are added. For new shape i will need to implement a new operations factory and a class per operation. For new operations i will need to add a method to the operations factory class and a class implementing the operation for each shape.

Answer 1

Making your classes more modular by creating an Operator class I think is great, but this is not really a factory. Factory usually involved creating an object base on some message, for example on a unserialization process.
For your case you could have an Operator member in your base class and in the constructor of your derived class you assign that member to the appropriate Operator derived class.

Answer 2

A solution could be to use the visitor design pattern. The purpose of this design pattern :
the visitor design pattern is a way of separating an algorithm from an object structure on which it operates. A practical result of this separation is the ability to add new operations to existing object structures without modifying those structures. It is one way to follow the open/closed principle.
The principle is simple:
You create a visitor class:
class Visitor
{
public:
virtual void visit(Circle*) = 0;
virtual void visit(Polyline*) = 0;
...
};
You add this method to Shape:
virtual void accept(class Visitor*) = 0;
Then you implements this method in each Shape sub class.
void Circle::accept(Visitor *v)
{
v->visit(this);
}
And then you have to create one visitor per operation:
class Drawer: public Visitor
{
public:
Drawer()
{
}
void visit(Circle* c)
{
drawCircle(c);
}
void visit(Polyline*p)
{
drawPolyline(p);
}
...
};
You could also delegate each visit method to a service: (visit(Circle* c) to a CircleDrawer).
void visit(Circle* c)
{
circleDrawer->draw(c);
}
void visit(Polyline*p)
{
polylineDrawer->draw(p);
}
If you want to add an operation, you will have to create a new visitor sub class.
If you want to add a shape, you will have to add a new method on each visitor.
The visitor collaborare really well with the composite design pattern (heavily use in gui programming). The visitor pattern can be used in addition with the composite pattern. The object structure can be a composite structure. In this case in the implementation of the accept method of the composite object the accept methods of the component object has to be invoked.
Note:
I am not a c++ programmer, feel free to edit and make the code syntactically correct.